Baldwin Wallace University’s Bachelor of Science in Nursing program has been ranked third out of 91 programs in Ohio for 2018.

The ranking comes from a website that ranks nursing programs, registerednursing.org, by examining states on their individual programs.

The BSN program, which started in 2012, is designed to prepare students for the National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN): the exam that grants licensure to prospective nurses. The exam is used by all state boards of nursing across the United States, said Dr. Betty Napoleon, the chair of the Department of Nursing.

For a student to be enrolled into the BSN program at BW, they are required to have completed a degree in another discipline, said Napoleon. The BSN is an accelerated program, meaning it is designed to be finished in one year. Since one of the admission requirements is to have a degree in another discipline, students are not required to complete core or undergraduate courses.

Despite the shortened time frame, students are expected to complete significant coursework during the program, said Napoleon.

“The average time in the classroom ranges from 12 to 15 hours just for classroom lecture, and then the students have [time in the lab] where they are being taught skills that they’ll need to use in the clinical setting working with patients,” said Napoleon. “In addition, they also have two days in the hospital or clinical setting where they have those hospital clinical rotations, which varies depending on the course they’re taking.”

According to the ranking website, “many state boards of nursing use the total overall NCLEX-RN pass rates for a school as one of the main ways to approve a school’s ability to provide a nursing education in the state.”

Napoleon said that the state boards take into consideration the number of students who take the exam, how many students take the exam, and the percentage of students who pass the exam on the first attempt.

Overall, the program’s conceptual framework is excellence in clinical practice, said Napoleon. Along with striving to be the best nursing program it can be, it also aims to help students not only do well in testing, but to be knowledgeable professionals so that they can provide excellent bedside care as a nurse once they graduate.

“[The program’s goals are] to continue to work hard to prepare faculty [and] work very closely with students,” said Napoleon.  “Our goal is to provide students with a solid foundation, high-quality education, and to help them be prepared to be strong nursing professionals when entering the field.”

The program will be extending from a 12-month program to a 15-month program in August 2018, according to the BW website.

The results for Ohio’s nursing program rankings can be found at https://www.registerednursing.org/state/ohio/#rankings.